GANGS in Haiti are recruiting children at unprecedented levels, with the number of minors targeted soaring by 70 per cent in the past year, according to a report released today by Unicef.

Currently, between 30 and 50 per cent of all gang members in the violence-ravaged country are children, according to the United Nations body.

Geeta Narayan, Unicef’s representative in Haiti, described the recruitment of children by the gangs as “a very concerning trend.”

The increase comes as poverty deepens and violence increases amid political instability, with gangs that control 85 per cent of Port-au-Prince attacking once peaceful communities in a push to assume total control of the capital.

Young boys are often used as informers “because they’re invisible and not seen as a threat,” Ms Narayan said. 

Some are given weapons and forced to participate in attacks.

Girls, meanwhile, are forced to cook, clean and even used as so-called “wives” for gang members.

“They’re not doing this voluntarily,” Ms Narayan said. “Even when they are armed with weapons, the child here is the victim.”

In a country where more than 60 per cent of the population lives on less than $4 (£3) a day and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are starving or nearing starvation, recruiting children is often easy.

One minor who was in a gang said he was paid $33 (£26) every Saturday, while another said he was paid thousands of dollars in his first month in a gang operation, according to a UN security council report.

Separately, a report published today by Human Rights Watch said: “Criminal groups in Haiti are subjecting girls and women to horrific sexual abuse.”

The report quoted a 14-year-old girl from the capital who said she was abducted and raped multiple times by different men for five days in a house with six other girls who also were raped and beaten.